"So I'm lucky?" Luke thought thoughtfully.
Ancient One shook his head and said, "Compared to me and Odin, you're a little too young, and you still have a lot to worry about. But in the future, you'll inevitably be like me, dealing with dimensional demons and powerful beings like Odin.
I simply hope you understand that the moral values established by mortals don't apply to us. Perhaps in the future, you'll see the actions of those dimensional demons as barbaric and cruel, full of the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak, without even a veil of shame. That's just who they are."
"So?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
"So never have any feelings towards them, or speculate on their style of doing things in a mortal way. The tone of their power is right there, and it cannot be hidden." Gu Yi answered calmly.
Luke nodded slowly. He knew that Ancient One was reminding him.
"It seems that you had a pleasant communication." Odin and his queen Frigga came together.
Ancient One and Luke stood up and nodded slightly to Odin and the others.
"This operation went smoothly. According to our original plan, should we prepare for the next one?" Odin could feel the changes in Asgard. In less than half a day, he felt that the energy near Asgard had become much more active.
The increased activity and concentration of energy are of great benefit to both the land of Asgard and its inhabitants. Asgard's territory will become more stable due to the increased energy, and the physical fitness of the people of Asgard will also become stronger due to the absorption and flushing of energy, especially the next generation, whose physical fitness will be even better! As the God King, under the contract of the priesthood, these two factors will be reflected back to him, making him even more powerful.
After this wave, Odin felt that he could use the magic of Asgard to add a few more powerful priests to Asgard to enrich Asgard's strength.
Odin was a little anxious because he had solved a huge hidden danger and could get huge benefits from it while turning danger into safety.
"Is the schedule full?" Luke's eyes moved back and forth between Ancient One and Odin.
"You always have to have a long-term vision. If your technology can really achieve the desired effect, it would be a waste to use it only once." Odin said with a smile.
"Odin and I once visited Mephisto, one of the lords of the Hell dimension, hoping to recruit him for assistance. But he was too cunning and cautious. Simply put, he wouldn't release the eagle until he saw the rabbit." Ancient pointed out what she and Odin had done during their disappearance. However, Mephisto didn't leave his dimension at all; he simply sent an avatar to communicate with them.
"Mephisto is a relatively reliable demon. Although he can still be considered despicable and shameless, with no moral bottom line." Odin shrugged his shoulders at Luke's gaze, poured himself a glass of wine, and continued, "But he still has a strong sense of contract. If the right to interpret the contract is not in his hands."
"Yes, if he didn't have that habit of always wanting people to sign a contract first, he'd actually be a pretty normal demon, someone who could interact with him." Ancient One and Mephisto had also clashed many times before, perhaps second only to her and Dormammu in terms of frequency of exchanges and fights. The other party was powerful, but also overly cautious.
"Now that we are all here, and the initial operation has ended successfully, should we invite Mephisto to come and discuss it?" Odin spoke to Ancient One, but his eyes glanced at Luke while he spoke.
The Ancient One also turned his gaze towards Luke, a questioning look in his eyes.
"I have no objection." Luke thought about it and didn't reject their proposal. Odin's smile widened upon hearing this. In fact, if he had a choice, he wouldn't want to recruit Mephisto just yet. With the Ancient One and Luke as his helpers, he could easily tackle those tough issues in the Nine Realms that he hadn't tackled before, just like he had eliminated Mangogo, and eliminate some more hidden dangers for Asgard.
But such a good thing obviously won't happen again.
Neither Ancient One nor Luke could possibly be his thugs and help him clean up the Nine Realms. Although they could gain some benefits from this cleanup, the one who would undoubtedly gain the most would be Odin.
How could the Ancient One and Luke have been helping him all this time? If it weren't for the fact that mind/emotional energy was the source of the future magical power of the Supreme Sorcerer's lineage, the Ancient One wouldn't have reached out to help Odin even if Asgard was gone.
…
The hall of the Asgard.
"Why is the banquet on hold?" Thor, who finally regained his ability to move, sat in his seat and asked Luke beside him with some confusion.
"A distinguished guest is coming." Luke squeezed Thor's shoulder muscles, which were as hard as rock. He asked, "How do you feel now?"
"Feeling? Not bad. Father used magic to split the energy into multiple portions and stored them within me. Once I've completely digested one portion, the next portion will be released," Thor replied honestly. He still felt a little unsteady, but it was much better than before when he couldn't move at all.
"That's good." Luke was thinking about how to coax Thor into doing this later, bah, inviting him to the atrium, or to his data dimension for a detailed physical examination or something.
"Who's coming?" Thor felt a chill all over his body, and a sense of crisis arose throughout his body.
"Look, that's it." Luke also became much more serious, pointing at the gate of Asgard where a large amount of black energy was pouring in.
The black flames of hell spread out a black carpet with swaying flames on the ground. The scene outside the gate of the Asgard was replaced by a dark road of bones filled with corpses. In the limited light, a strange face filled with pain and torment, as if screaming, flashed by in the darkness from time to time.
tread.
tread.
Subtle footsteps echoed along the long path of bones, and a thin figure slowly emerged from the darkness. He was a man about two meters tall, dressed in a long black dress, leaning on a walking stick, wearing a black high-top round hat, and a white bone mask.
The man's thin figure attracted the attention of everyone in the Fairy Palace. The Fairy Palace guards and others felt a strong sense of crisis from the thin man. Even though they knew that this was a guest invited by their own God King, they couldn't help but subconsciously grasp the weapons in their hands.
The man finally stopped in front of Odin and others, and the terrifying and depressing background behind him slowly disappeared.
"An avatar, Mephisto, you are still so cowardly." Odin smiled.
"No, this has nothing to do with cowardice. It's not a meeting that requires a fight. One incarnation is enough, isn't it? After all, my kingdom is not safe either." The bone mask on Mephisto's face seemed to come alive, revealing a strange and peculiar smile.
"We are all short on time, so let's just skip some unnecessary processes. We have implemented the plan and verified its success. You can feel the energy lake near Asgard." Odin took over the situation, and neither Ancient One nor Luke had any objection to this.
Mephisto didn't mind Odin's rudeness. After he felt it carefully, two balls of faint flames ignited in the eyes of the bone mask.
"It seems you've indeed succeeded. This energy is indeed quite superior. And I feel some of it would be well-suited to my Hell dimension." Mephisto nodded in satisfaction. "On behalf of my true self, I'll join your group and participate in the subsequent plans."
"I've already chosen someone who's strong enough, but not very smart, and who's always fighting with me for territory..."
"No, the conditions have changed, Mephisto! This time we will choose the candidates instead of you providing the targets." Odin shook his head and interrupted Mephisto.
As Luke and the others watched, Mephisto and Odin engaged in a fierce exchange of words. The intensity was so intense that powerful energy surged through both men, and it seemed as if a breakdown in negotiations would lead to a fistfight. Luke had observed Thor tightening his grip on Mjolnir more than once.
However, after arguing for quite a long time and seeing that it was impossible to gain any benefit from Odin and Ancient One, Mephisto finally restrained the energy overflowing from his body.
"Okay, okay, you choose, but I have to make it clear in advance that if the target you choose is too outrageous, I'll have to refuse." A helpless smile appeared on Mephisto's bone mask, and he spoke in a compromising tone with a long tone.
"Beast," Odin said. This was the goal the three of them had discussed before Mephisto arrived.
"What?" Mephisto's bone mask looked dazed.
"Beast!" Odin repeated it considerately in the language of the hell dimension.
"That's impossible!" Mephisto was like someone's tail had been stepped on. The energy surged several times more violently than before, as if he was about to attack. He said angrily, "How dare you pay attention to the beast?"
Mephisto's roar made Thor stand up with his hammer in hand. Luke quickly grabbed his arm and asked, "What do you want to do?"
"Didn't the negotiations break down?" Thor looked at Luke who was holding him, a little confused.
"Not really." Luke pulled Thor back to a seat. An avatar, even if baring its teeth, would only be a show of strength. Could it be that Mephisto really wanted to use an avatar to fight Odin in Asgard, on Odin's own turf? He wasn't one of those mindless demons; his brain wasn't broken. Besides, beside Odin stood the taciturn Ancient One, quietly sipping his tea.
Sure enough, the next moment, the angry Mephisto started arguing with Odin again.
Mephisto has only one core requirement: The beast must be a good partner, even though my territory is [millions of miles] away. I can't do such a cruel thing! What? You want me to make a request? I only have one request, and that's for more money!
After a few rounds of back-and-forth, the two sides finally agreed on a price that satisfied both parties. Odin and the other two had already agreed on a certain share, and now they could even get some back from Mephisto, so of course they were very satisfied.
"Now that we have discussed everything, let's sign a contract." Mephisto opened his formal attire and took out a quill. Sheets of burnt yellow parchment appeared in the air, in triplicate, and floated towards Luke, Odin, and Ancient One.
Contract documents.
Luke curiously took the long piece of parchment. As he watched, the inexplicable text on the parchment suddenly transformed into the language of the Atrium, and the format was as clear and organized as a human contract. But the more Luke examined it, the more he felt something was amiss. Just as the urge to sign surged within him, his Almighty Ring suddenly transformed into a Serene Blue mode.
Luke's mind suddenly became clear and he broke free from the temptation of the parchment.
A look of disappointment appeared on Mephisto's bone mask.
"Stop playing these little tricks. Those random patterns, do you think I don't know that this is another kind of language from the Hell dimension? And there's a double-layer contract, you're on the thirteenth layer! Does signing this kind of contract mean I have to work for you?" Ancient One used the parchment as a footrest for the teacup, and Odin threw it aside without even looking at it.
Mephisto, exposed, stood calmly, his bone mask devoid of any trace of shame or other emotions. He was just trying to squeeze two birds with one stone. What if he got away with it? He had no use for shame.
"You've got to give me some sense of security, right? Otherwise, if I finally lure the beast out, and then excitedly step into your encirclement, what if you kill both me and the beast? I don't want to be used as a power source with it." Mephisto spread his hands. Could this scenario happen? It's entirely possible! Who hasn't dealt with whom before? Or is it that they don't know each other?
"Trust can be cultivated," Luke suddenly said. Odin and Gu Yi glanced at Luke and fell silent.
"Yes, so why don't you sign a contract?" Mephisto's bone mask was full of distress.
"I think this contract looks a bit like the contract template in the atrium." Luke patted the rolled up parchment.
"Yes, yes, I have harvested several souls from your side and gained some very interesting knowledge from them. Banking, finance, contracts. My business is spread all over the universe, so the contracts are also ever-changing." Mephisto said vaguely.
"You should be able to see that if our actions can continue, everyone among us will be able to gain huge benefits. And these benefits will be continuous and long-lasting! If this accumulation continues, perhaps one day in the future, the energy in each of our hands will never be exhausted no matter how much we squander it. By then, maybe we can use it to borrow some energy from demons in other dimensions or our peers who are striving for the status of demons." Luke said softly.
"What do you want to say?" Mephisto had a strange feeling. He sensitively grasped something that made his heart beat from Luke's words.
"Are you willing to become the first president of the Demon Energy Bank in the future dimension?" Luke asked directly.
Mephisto blinked.